The Downside of “The Downside of High”

My letter in response to the writer, director and researcher of the David Suzuki Nature of Things program “The Downside of High”, Bruce Mohun.

http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=187427198

Some of my response is in regards to the following letter from Mr. Mohun to Ontario activist Hudsonrulez.

[email protected] (if your going to email him do it sanely and do not threaten this person – Hudsonrulez)

“I’m presuming you haven’t actually seen the documentary, which tends to come out in favor of legalization (in the form of a statement by one of the leading experts in The Netherlands) so that at least, in that way, the balance between cannabidiol and THC can be controlled.”

“Although the doc is not about public policy, it’s about the science. Not sure what you think is ‘garbage’ science. But you’re always welcome to get a science degree and carry out your own studies. The nine we followed stretched over 35 years, used over 80,000 subjects in four countries and hundreds of very learned people who were not in the least interested in condemning pot. They only wanted to answer the question of why they were seeing more and more often young people become psychotic after using marijuana. The biological
studies, searching for how marijuana effects the dopamine system, have been
going on over the last few years and are continuing.”

“I’ve talked to virtually everyone in this field, all over the world, for two years now. And the science community is in agreement, because of those nine studies, that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia. Not as a sole cause, but as a component cause, as a risk factor.”

The tests carefully adjusted for the possibility that perhaps cause and effect
were confused and that perhaps the mental illness was causing the marijuana use (although that certainly happens sometimes.)

“The documentary is neither pro-pot nor anti-pot. Neither are the researchers
we talked with. They are pro-health. And if they suspect a threat, they are inclined to do the tests to find the truth. Both science and good journalism are about finding the truth.”

“I am personally against the legalization of pot for a completely unusual reason: I don’t want to see millions of acres of land go under the plough to grow a drug, when we desperately need that land to be either returned to nature or used for food production.”

“And even grown indoors, hydroponically, a huge amount of energy is needed, and our civilization needs to reduce its consumption by eighty percent if it wants to survive.”

“Otherwise, smoke away – enjoy. I trust you’re over 25 years old and well out of the arena of harm.”

Bruce Mohun

writer/director/researcher
The Downside of High

My response

Mr. Mohun,

I have a direct question for you, did you recieve any Federal Government money, like that received by Chris Summerville for his “study” on cannabis and schizophrenia? Please give me a direct answer to this question.

In a letter in response to criticisms of your program you state “I’ve talked to virtually everyone in this field, all over the world, for two years now. And the science community is in agreement, because of those nine studies, that marijuana can trigger schizophrenia.”

Did you interview the researchers mentioned in these articles? http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/02/cannabis-schizophrenia.html http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091022101538.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/cannabis_psychosis_study/
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Schizophrenia-link-cannabis-denied/article-1288926-detail/article.html

There is other information regarding this out there, and a unbiased researcher would have taken this into account.

Those who oppose marijuana legalization, have a clear motivation and desire to establish a link between cannabis and schizophrenia, as it Puts a “scientific” label, on their purely “moral” opposition. The British Raj attempted this same method in 19th century India. In their attempt to colonize India, the British found major opposition from cannabis using “faqirs” and sadhus” who opposed the Brits and held considerable social influence over the population, and were considered holy figures.

Thus, in order to rid these streets of these unruly hashish intoxicated “madmen” , as nile Green explains in ISLAM AND THE ARMY IN COLONIAL INDIA: Sepoy Religion in the Service of Empire new British legislation was drawn up in Colonial India “including legislation on drug use and the incarceration of mendicants in India’s insane asylums” (Green, 2009).

“The import of the faqirs reckless jeers, his nakedness and his open drug-use were for these reasons reinterpreted in official policy as signs of his insanity and his ‘anti-social’ character. Given the widespread role of faqirs…, the expanded role of the asylum was therefore one of several ways in which these unruly agitators were controlled. By these means, the social meaning of the faqir was reversed: his activities were no longer evidence of jazb, of sweet intoxication in God’s presence, but proof instead of insanity”. (Green, 2009)

This British agenda in India, fit in well with contemporary medical views about what constituted insanity. In MADNESS, CANNABIS AND COLONIALISM: The ‘Native Only’ Lunatic Asylums of British India, 1857-1900, James Mill’s explains.

“The constant reference to the lunatic asylum in British India in discussions of cannabis and cannabis users is the first clue in traces origins of those discussions. Mark Stewart… specifically referred to the asylums in his question to Parliament… ‘The Commissioner has always looked on a ganja-smoker and a bad character as synonymous, and has, in his connection with lunatic asylums in different parts of Bengal, observed that in large numbers of cases insanity has been induced by excessive ganja-smoking.’…”

“The asylum was important as it was the site of… the categorization and the enumeration of cannabis use as a social problem…”

“….Through this process at the asylum the use of cannabis substances among the Indian population became crystallized as a category of social problem by the colonial authorities through the invention of the hemp user as a dangerous human type.”

“….cannabis use by 1871/3 was associated by colonial officials with… immorality, suicide, the murder of Christians, and even the revolt against British authority of 1857. The cannabis user was identified as a human type, seen as unpredictable, [and]violent…” (Mills, 2000)

As Nile Green explains: “The genealogy of mental pathology in Victorian British through the ideas of social reform and the earlier Enlightenment ideology of reason lent colonial medicine a complex politico-cultural agenda based on an ingrained bourgeois association between work and morality on the one hand and notions of self-control based on the characteristically British formulation of ‘common sense’ on the other” (Green, 2009). These ideas also fit in well with emerging ideas about external “stimulants” as the source of insanity.

“Throughout the nineteenth century medical men in Europe were struggling to assert their authority over the psyche… doctors needed to prove that the brain and its working were properly their concern and not the concern of other professional groups like the clergy who could claim specialists knowledge of the routes to psychological well-being… Indeed the emphasis on an external stimulant as a cause of insanity corresponded neatly with contemporary medical theories that ‘the brain, as a material organ was liable to irritation and inflammation and it was this which produced insanity,’ theories which insisted upon the physiological basis of mental illness in order to assert the jurisdiction of medical men over insanity. Blaming hemp was a simple and plausible way of ascribing the aetiology of mental disease in India which thereby reinforced the medical officer’s claim that he knew what he was talking about.” (Mills, 2000)

Thus through this same method, the Brits sculpted Hindu and Islamic culture, demonized cannabis with science, and achieved their own moral agenda.

Considering that Stephen Harper has enlisted the aid of an Evangelical Minister in his own funded study trying to establish a link, as well as his answer to the question has he ever thought about smoking cannabis, which he said was “between him and his creator” it seems pretty clear that Harper has a “moral” agenda regarding pot, and he is using science to legitimize that – Thus my original question regarding your funding…..

Now, how about the well established links between alcohol and mental illness? As well, it seems many of the schizophrenics I have known smoke cigarette after cigarette, drink tons of coffee, don’t eat or sleep well… a few weeks of that and I’d be nuts! Further, what about the Bible and the Christian cosmology of angels and demons as a cause of schizophrenia? – Lots of links there as well….

You also state “I don’t want to see millions of acres of land go under the plough to grow a drug, when we desperately need that land to be either returned to nature or used for food production.”

Perhaps do a little research into the potential benefits of environmental hemp and the nutrition of the hemp seed, as you clearly need to do some serious research.

About Author

Chris Bennett has been researching the historical role of cannabis in magic and religion for over a quarter century, his books include 'Green Gold the tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic and Religion' (1995); 'Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible' (2001); 'Cannabis and the Soma Solution' (2010. He Currently resides in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where he runs his ethnobotanical shop The Urban Shaman.

Comments

14 Comments

Anonymous friend on
August 18, 2010 7:27 am

Roger Christie is the creator thc minstry he is being held without bail. 63 yr old ministers are sooo dangerous..checkout the hawaii canabis ministry web site to suport him and religious freedoms every where

Anonymous on
February 8, 2010 9:19 am

actually i dont mind his reasons for not wanting environmental damage.’

thing is even under prohibition there is a demand.
this means that a lot of power is wasted where it could be grown outdoors.
it would not require millions of acres at all and it would be rather environmentally sound.

merry jon on
February 8, 2010 3:25 am

d. suzuki is a shill alas. al gore is full of co2 hot air. ganja is a sacred herb to the righteous and less harmful than tobacco or alcohol to the swine.

Chris Bennett on
February 7, 2010 6:39 pm

No response to my querries, regarding federal funding and biased research, yet from Bruce Mohun. If i don’t hear back by mid week, I will contact the CBC Ombudsman with my concerns about the bias nature of this program, and questions of Federal funding. Is David Suzuki a shill for Harper?http://www.cbc.ca/ombudsman/page/contact.html

Chris Bennett on
February 7, 2010 5:37 pm

Right… and only Dan-o sees the truth? Sure kid. The middle road is not always the road of truth.

Dan-o on
February 7, 2010 3:47 pm

If you are pro cannabis you’ll undoubtedly deny science claiming any health risk of it’s use. If you are Pro cannabis prohibition you’ll undoubtedly deny any science claiming health benefits or harmlessness. It is what it is, noone is ready to see facts no matter what they are because they’ve blinded themselves with personal prejudices. BOTH sides have done that.

From the 70s on
February 6, 2010 2:25 pm

I would like to post but the SPAM filter blocks me.

From the 70s on
February 6, 2010 2:02 pm

I would like to add a comment yet the SPAM filter stops me.

Anonymous on
February 6, 2010 6:59 am

“it has been shown that no such mention exists” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
Who “shown” you these things? They must be one learned person.
How long did it take them? Did you go page by page with them? Or are you referring to something specific that Chris said? How’d you make it into the human race Anon?

I have some timeshare property that you might be interested in…

Anonymous on
February 6, 2010 3:09 am

Agreed. The only science in this doc is it’s propaganda.

45 minutes with that many anectodes, with those weak studies backing it up? LOL STFU Bruce. You’re either too ignorant or too spineless to realize how you’re even harming yourself by spreading this garbage. You are a coward. This is filth.

Unless you start getting your greed, your greed is going to get you.

Chris Bennett on
February 6, 2010 2:37 am

Obviously you need to do some more research

Anonymous on
February 6, 2010 2:03 am

Yup, there’s a lot of garbage science going around on the subject of Cannabis. There are even people who will swear that Cannabis was mentioned in the Bible even though it has been shown that no such mention exists. There are some mentions of reeds, but nothing that would be a fitting description of Cannabis. Now THAT is garbage science.

Xpencer on
February 6, 2010 12:33 am

Good letter Chris. I believe Cannabis doesn’t link itself to the “insane”. The “Insane” link themselves to Cannabis for it’s medicinal relief. Nothing relaxes and eases pain (whether physical or mental) better than the soothing aroma that is Cannabis. It is true that what is good is good. Woe unto those that call evil good and good evil. A tree is known by it’s fruits. Hemp Hearts declare that the buds are good as well.
A tree cannot bring forth good and evil fruit.
Jesus & Cannabis…..Projex.Webs.com
X

Roland on
February 5, 2010 9:59 pm

Cannabis can cause schizo in those predisposed to it. So what? Any psychoactive drug can do that, including alcohol. Cannabis can cause obesity too. Big deal! As for “millions of acres”, cannabis is an excellent cover crop that enriches the soil and smothers weeds. Works well in an alfalfa-maize rotation, for example. But “a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”